Volltext

Link zum Volltext (externe URL):

Abstract

With the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, the start of a new chapter of uncertainty in health policy has begun. The Trump administration aimed to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and replace it with the American Health Care Act (AHCA). In March 2017, the AHCA was withdrawn before be-ing voted on. However, it was passed by the House of Representatives with changes in May 2017. Based on this development, this essay analyzes and reviews the ACA and the AHCA on (1) access, (2) affordability, (3) quality of care and individual health, as well as (4) costs giving an overview about the ACA, the AHCA and their effects. This paper shows the ACA increased insurance coverage by 20 million Americans. However, Americans still face issues in affording healthcare due to high deductible plans while the American healthcare system is confronted with rising costs in the future. The AHCA would be cutting costs in the federal budget by an estimated $935 billion, but approximately 24 million Americans would lose their health insurance. Under the AHCA, costs for individ-ual plans for Americans above the age of 50 as well as the actual out-of-pocket expenses for Americans would increase. Instead of improving shortcomings of the ACA, the AHCA would exacerbate these by increasing the uninsured rate and out-of-pocket expenses. Although being passed by the house, the bill was not passed by the Senate. At this point, it remains unclear how future political reforms will look like.